• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

I would like to ask a question about the Metropolitan Police Service’s capacity to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM) now that Department of Health statistics show that London accounts for over half of all FGM cases in England, and I wanted to ask the Commissioner, given we heard last month that ten out of 12 FGM cases put forward by the MPS to the CPS have fallen, are you concerned at the ability we have to prosecute the cases and what lessons have you taken from this for the future?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Commissioner, could I go back to the conundrum about the future cuts in budgets and the increasing number of officers and, therefore, the increasing percentage that their pay will be. You have already said that pay is a huge percentage of your budget. As you increase offices you are actually brining the point at which it becomes inefficient and you are going to have to backfill officers into support staff roles, eve closer, are you not? If you stick with this what is a fairly arbitrary number of 32,000, or even what has been described as a ‘fetish’ for the...

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

I want to ask you about closed circuit television (CCTV). Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Yes. Andrew Dismore AM: Do you think CCTV is important in combating crime?

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

A question for the Mayor, really. I want to pick up from where Sir Bernard left off on the issue of abstractions. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Yes. Andrew Dismore AM: In February 2013, Sir Bernard told the Police and Crime Committee that he had set a target of no more than 5% of officers’ working time on abstractions, but in July of this year, total abstractions across London in terms of total of hours worked was 17%, more than three times the target. What that translates to is quite serious. In Barnet, for example, in the six months to...

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Commissioner, on the question of the costs of policing London, I think MOPAC has said, and I think probably the Inspector of Constabulary has pointed out also that the cost per head of policing London is probably about twice as much as the average for the rest of the country, and that is even taking out the cost of the national responsibilities which you have. I believe that there has been a drive on between yourself and MOPAC to try to bring down that comparison to get nearer to the national average. How are you getting on with that?

• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

I want to raise with you the issue of tenants who were threatened with eviction from MOPAC-owned homes, some of whom were in fact evicted. I was pleased to see that the vast majority of those now will not be. Your Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime [Stephen Greenhalgh], who I see has just joined us, having reversed his own decision to evict people. I raised this with you back in March, the whole issue of tenants being evicted from Raynesfield in Wimbledon. Why did you not step in then when you had the chance, rather than sitting back while...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Could I ask a few questions now on front desks and contact points? We have seen the closure of three police stations in the residential part of Westminster, that is, north of Oxford Street. That is, the Howe Road in Paddington, Marylebone Station in Seymour Street and St John’s Wood Police Station in New Court Road. Why has there been no front desk replacements, Mr Mayor? Could I ask the Commissioner, has the MPS forgotten that people actually live in Westminster?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, Commissioner. Good afternoon, Mayor. Commissioner, can I just talk to you about police response times? I can see from the tables which MOPAC has provided to us that the emergency response times of the police across London for the past two years have slipped in the wrong direction, particularly for Category S, which is the ‘respond in one hour’, and Category E, which is the ‘respond to within 48 hours’. Second and third priority response times have gotten worse. I notice this particularly because it has affected my own borough; Southwark have lost 5% of...

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Thank you. My question now then is to the Mayor, if I may. When the cuts to policing were first announced three-odd years ago, there were reports and in this Chamber many people warned that anything above a 12% cut to policing would affect the frontline. You said then that the MPS could make 20% at that point without affecting the frontline. I think we have seen the frontline being affected by those 20% cuts. Mr Mayor, can I just put it to you that we have heard about the risks to the future. Is it fair to say, do...

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

My first set of questions are actually for the Commissioner, if I may, and I have some for the Mayor following that. Thank you for the comments about the Autumn Statement and the difficulties financially that the police are going to have in the future. A couple of weeks ago the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime talked about drastic and dangerous police cuts which will have to happen. You have talked, I believe, today, and I have certainly had reports from ITN, that it would be difficult to maintain the 32,000 police officers on an ongoing basis. Could I...